Bottle cap and method of making the same



jam. 16, i923. M4425?? A. L, BERNARDIN. BOTTLE CAP AND METHOD oF MAKING THE SAMEA FILED MAR 23. 1922. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 J5@ fwmw @51j MWWMM Patented dan. 16, 1923.

ALFRED L. BERNARDIN, 0F EVANSVILLE, INDIANA; MARY T. BEBNARDIN ADMIN- ISTBATRIX 0F SAID ALFRED L. BERNARDIN, DECEASED.

BOTTLE CAP AND METHOD 0F MAKING- THE SAME.

, Application led March 23, 1922. Serial No. 545,999.

To all who/m, t may concern Beit known that l, ALFRED L. BERNARDIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Evansville, inf-the county of Vanderburg, State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle Caps and Methods of Making the Same, of which the following is a description, reference being had -to the accompanying drawing and to the igures of reference marked thereon.

The invention relates to new and useful improvements'in bottle caps and the method of making the vsame.

An object of the invention is to provide a one piece deep drawn coated bottle cap.

A further object of the invention is to provide a bottle cap of the above type, wherein the coated surface is applied to the metal in the sheet previous to drawing and wherein said bottle cap is drawn in such a way that the coated surface in the sheet forms the outer surface of the cap and so that said coating in the finished cap is not appreciably disturbed.

A still further object of the invention is to provide -a method of forming one piece dee-p drawn bottle caps, wherein the cap is formed by a progressive limited drawing contact and the metal durino' drawing is so supported that the metalnis caused to flow in the reshaping thereof to form the cap without Aany buckling of the metal, so that a coated surface in the sheet can form the outer surface of a cap wherein the coating is not appreciably disturbed.

These and other objects will in part be obvious and `will in part be hereinafter disclosed. f

In the .drawings which show by way of illustration one embodiment of the invention- Figure l is a perspective View of a deep drawn one piece coated bottle cap embodying my improvements;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view through the same; l

Fig. 3 is a pers ectiveview of a blank cut preparatoryto t e drawing of the cap;

F1g.4 is a view showing the beginning of the drawing operation;

Fig. 5 is a view showing the ending of the irst drawing operation; y

Fig. 6 is av view showing beginning of the second drawing operation;

and may be equal to or greater than the diameter of the cap.

Great dili'iculty has been experienced in forming a deep drawn bottle cap, such as referred to above, as the strain on the metal incident to the drawing operation is distributed over ,such a small surface in a. deep drawn cap that the flange adjacent the top portion of the cap is likely to be'ruptured during drawing. -Then again, in a deep drawn cap the extent of contact of the dies is so great, as heretofore used, that the surface of the metal forming the outside of the cap, if.lacquered or coated, is so distributed as to render the cap unsalable.

4I have, however, succeeded in forming a one piece deep drawn bottle cap wherein the depth of the flange is at least half the diameter of the cap or greater,and wherein the finished cap has a coating on its outer surface which isA not appreciably disturbed, so that the capis readily salable. Ihave also been able to accomplish this result in a practical way as my improved cap has the coating applied to the sheet before the sheet is drawn to form the cap and is drawn in such a way as not to appreciably disturb the coating.

The improved article will possibly be better understood by a detail description of the article and my preferred method of making the same.

The improved bottle cap which I have devised consists of a top portion l and a body portion 2 which are formed integral. rlhis body portion 2 is relatively deep and is shown in Fig. l of the drawings of a depth which is slightly greater than or equal to the diameter of the cap. 1t will be understood, however, that 1 may make my cap of greater diameter than the depth of the flange without departing from the spirit of the invention and still within the range of what yis known as a deep drawn cap.l A deep drawn cap, however, does have a flange of a depth equal to or greater of steell to form tin plate.

than half the diameter of the cap. Said cap is preferably provided with vertigally extending corrugations 3, often referred to as a knurl, to aid in turning the cap on to the bottle or jar. The cap-s also provided, as shown in the drawings, with a thread 4 which is adapted to engage the thread on the bottle, and the cap which I have shown is known in the art as a screw cap. It will be understood, of course, that lugs may be used in place of the'thread, or any other means of shaping the cap to hold it on the bottle or jar.

My improved cap is formed from a sheet of metal which is first coated. In Fig. 3 of the drawings, I have shown a blank 5, the upper surface of which is provided with a coating 6. This coating may be of lacquer or enamel, lithographed, or decorated in any desired way, and it is to be understood that, by the use of the term coating I intend to cover all various known ways of covering the metal for protection, or for the purpose of decorating, byut I do not contemplate by this expression the initial tinning of a sheet My improved cap is'made of metal, and preferably tin plate, although of course other metals may be used without kdeparting from thespirit of the invention as set forth in the claims.

The sheet after being coated is cut into blanks, each one of which forms a cap. The

blank is preferably cut at the time when the -blank is-to be drawn so as to avoid han 4dling separate blanks. A blank is placed in a machine which is provided with a female die 7 and a male' dieS. This female die 7 is formed with a drawing ring 9, which has a curved drawing face 10. As clearly shown in thev drawings, the ldepth of the ring is very much less than the depth of the flange of the cap to be drawn. The die above the drawing ring is of larger diameter than the drawing ring. rIhe metal. is placed across the entrance to the female die and is yieldingly clamped against the drawing ring by a spring supported clamping ring 11. The male die is forced upwardly or the female die forced downwardly so as to give a relative movement to the die members andthe metal is thus drawn into cap form. In Fig. 4 of the drawings, I have shown the male die just entering the drawing ring and the metal as having been started on the reshaping of the same to form the cap. It

will be noted that the drawing ring makes contact with the metal at the portion thereof which is to form the top of thecap and this drawing ring has a progressive movement along the flange or body portion of the cap to the extreme lower edge thereof during drawing. As above noted, the drawing contact between the ring and the flange of the cap is very limited. 'Two very important results are accomplished by thliS.

limited drawing contact. In the first place, the -strain incident to the drawing is reduced to a minimum and this enables me to produce a relatively long drawn flange in one operation. `As a matter of fact, where the flange is only about equal to one half of the diameter of the finished cap, I may draw the cap in one operation. However, when the depth of the .flange is approximately equal to the diameter of the cap, then I use two drawing operations as the strain would be so great of the male member 8 of the die, on the relatively small top portion 1 of the cap, as to rupture the metal if the drawingV operation were so extensive.

In Fig. 5 of the drawing, I have shown what maybe used as a cap where the depth of the flange is approximately one-half the diameter of the cap and what may be used as the shell for the second drawing operationwhere the depth of the flange is to be greater than one-half the diameter of the cap. Y

The second result accomplished by this relatively f narrowsdrawing contact is that the coated surface is subjected to a minimum amount of frictional slipping contact,

so that the coated surface is not appreciably disturbed during the drawing operation. rllhe pressing ring supports the metal and prevents the same from wrinkling or bending so that during the drawing of the cap the metal flows for a reshaping of the blank to form the cap as distinguished from any bending of the metal. `When the cap is subjected to a secon-d drawing operation it is placed in a die, such as shown in Fig. 6. The female die is provided with a drawing ring 13, which has a limited drawing'contact on the metal similar to that described above in connection with the dies in Figs. 4 and 5. Associatedwith the female die is a supporting sleeve 14 which is of the size of the initially drawn shell, so that the shell slips down over this sleeve. The upper end of this sleeve is shaped to conform with the shell so as to completely support the metal on the inside of the shell. This together with the shaping of the drawing ring which is curved and tapered, forms a drawing throat which is gently curved so that the metal may flow through thethroat into the reshaped condition to form the cap and be supported so as'to insure a flowing of the metal as distinguished from a bending of the metal. The male die member 15 works through the sleeve 14 and operates tobring about a drawing of the cap.

In the second dra-win operation I employ the same members as ave been described above. The metal is clamped or supported on both sidesthereof so as to prevent wrinkling or bending and isA drawn by a drawing ring having a verylimited drawing contact of much less extent than the depth of the ange, which reduces the strain incident to drawing and which also limits the extent of contact between the drawing ring and the surface of the cap57 this drawing contact beginning-.at the top o the cap and progressing or moving downwardly to the edge of the cap. By this `limited Vcontact I am able to put the coated shell through a second drawing operation without appreciably disturbing the coating thereon.

From the above, it will be apparent that I have provided a one piece deep drawn coated bottle cap, Whereinthe 'coating is applied to the metal in the sheet previousL to drawing and, therefore, can be evenly applied and after the metal vhas been coated it is dra-wn into the fornrof the cap without disturbing appreciably the coating thereon. rIhe cap after it is drawn is knurled and threaded and then l trimmed at the lower vedge thereof, which nishesthe cap. The

I lacquer appled to the metal inthe sheet. I

have described in detail the outer coating as this is the coating that is likely to be rubbed or marred during drawin I do not claim broadly a new method o drawing metal,r but my invention resides in the method of forming a deep drawn bottle cap.

It is obvious that minor changes in the shaping ofl the parts and the proportions thereof ma be made withJout departing from the spiritl of the invention as settoriali in the appended claims.

I-Iaving thus described my' invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1.\ As an article of piece deep drawn bottle cap having its outer manufacture,` a one- FET? surface provided with a coating of' such a character las would be injured or disturbed by the usual methods of deep drawing, cornprising an integral top and a seamless body' portion having a depth equal to at least onehalf the diameter of the cap, said cap being formed from a blank cut :from a coated sheet and rby a drawing contact beginning with theblank in flat condition and at the portion of the blank which is to form the top ofthe cap and progressing toward the edge of the cap whereby the re-shaping of the metal to form-the cap is secured by a flowing of the metal without any substantial bending or buckling thereof and the coa-ting applied in the sheet is thereby unappreciably disturbed during the forming of the cap.

y 2. The Amethod oit forming a. `one-'piece deep drawn bottle vcap having on its outer surfae a coating of such `a character as would be injured or disturbed by the usual methods of deeg drawing, comprising coating the metal om which the ca is to be .formed in the sheet, cutting a b ank from the sheet, drawing the cap from the blank by a drawing contact beginning with 'the b ank in flat condition and at` the portion which is to fornnthe top of the cap and progressingtoward the edge ofthe cap, said drawing contact being portion of the depth o the cap whereby the drawing strain is reduced to a minimum and supporting the metal during drawing so thatthe entire re-shapin of Vthe metal is secured by a flowing'of t e metal without anyv substantial bending or buckling thereof whereby the coating applied in the sheet is unappreciably disturbed during the formationof the cap.

In testimony whereof, I aiiix my signature.

ALFRED L. BERNARDIN.

limited 'to a small A 

